Enter By Their Door: if you would lead, follow
Ignatius taught not only by word but also by example. The first thing to do is to concentrate one’s heart and soul in loving the person you want to aid… even though the person is question was a hardened sinner he found something in them to love… Jerome Nadal, SJ
How shall I enter chaos
my colleagues turbulent temper?
my neighbor’s ill-matched marriage?
my friend’s deadly disease?
my church’s agonizing affliction?
my country’s disheartening disunion?
Lao Tzu says, “ Good rulers rule inconspicuously. Their influence is every where, yet the people are scarcely aware of its source.”**
St. Ignatius of Loyola says, “Enter by their door so as to come out by our door.”
Like a single snowflake
melting
on upturned palm
soften thaw vanish
enter chaos
giving way to wisdom
not wrought
by my hand
Forget fixing…
the ears of my heart open
Forget moralizing…
my stiff knees bend bow low
Who can know the source of wind
yet there is no door
it does not enter
leading from behind
Poem by Debra Asis 2024
- * Tao Teh Ching : Wisdom of Lao Tzu
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Jerome Nadal, SJ’s quote is found in today’s selection in An Ignatian Book of Days by Jim Manney, a series of daily reflections from the Spiritual Wisdom of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Throughout the book we hear the voices of St. Ignatius as well as many great thinkers and writers, long gone and present day, each uniquely revealing the way of finding God in all things. And that is my intention; to find God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality in whatever presents itself to me each day in 2024.
Each day I read, reflect and write on the selection, hoping to articulate the ways in which I come to know God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality via personal experience, impelled by the leading of my inner life.
INVITATION
Would you like to join me? The book is accessible on Amazon. Let me know in the comments to this post and sign up to get an email whenever I post. I would love to read your reflections too, public or private messages welcome!
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https://www.debraasis.org
All words are generated by grace and the grit of a real human being,
Debra Asis
